Assignment 1 – Dress Design
Overview
For this individual assignment, you will use skills acquired through practical laboratory exercises toautomate a business process, and to visualize the impact of the automation.
You should use Microsoft Excel (or equivalent open-source software) for this assessment task.
Important:This assignment specification is generated just for you. Do not distribute this specification. If
your personal specification is made publicly available online, academic misconduct charges may be applied.
Timelines and Expectations:
Percentage value of task: 20%
Due: Refer to Course Description
Learning Outcomes Assessed:
The following course learning outcomes are assessed by completing this assessment:
A1. Prepare a basic solution to a business problem;
A2. Select appropriate IT solutions for business functions;
A3. Apply business information software for data visualization and analysis purposes.
S1. Write basic programming logic;
S3. Interpret and construct representations of business data flow and processes;
K8. Outline the basic principles of programming.
Assessment Details:
For this assignment, you will complete the following set of tasks using Excel, and build an ePortfolio page to
describe your work.
Task 0 – Setting up:
Create an ePortfolio page for your assignment. You will submit this page to Moodle as per the lab tasks.
You may call it whatever you like, for example ITECH1100 Assignment 1 – 30373912.
Scenario details:
Dress Design is a small clothing manufacturer, specializing in creating custom, one-of-a-kind dresses. They
exclusively sell their product through their online store.
Dress Design is run by a team of three staff members: Abraham, Benjamin, and Carol.
Abraham and Benjamin work together to manufacture dresses. Carol manages orders, sales and delivery.
Team hours:
Most of the time, team members work the following shifts.
Abraham works 7.5 hours on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays;
Benjamin works 7.5 hours on Thursdays and Fridays; and
Carol works 4.5 hours every weekday.
Additionally, Abraham and Carol share responsibility for managing the Dress Dwith Abraham working one extra hour in the evenings on Monday, Tuesday and oing the same on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Costs:
Abraham and Benjamin, as skilled manufacturing staff, cost $26 per hour to employ.
Carol, a part-time employee, costs $24 per hour to employ.
All staff are also entitled to four weeks of paid annual leave, during which a casual replacement is required
at a cost of $39 per hour.
Fixed costs such as rent and insurance are $9100 per year, and utilities costs are $260 per month.
Task 1 – Costs of operating the business.
Using Excel, create a spreadsheet called operating_costs.xlsx that calculates the projected annual outgoing
costs of running Dress Design.
Your spreadsheet should be configured such that the working hours, hourly rates, and fixed and utility costs
can be varied easily.
Document your findings in your ePortfolio page (approximately 100 words).
Manufacturing dresses:
Dress Design receive requests through their online store, and Carol responds with a quote, after consulting
with a member of the manufacturing team. If the customer confirms their order, Abraham and Benjamin
manufacture the ordered products, and Carol organizes delivery.
Currently, the process for generating a quote is entirely subjective, based on the requested material and
dress size. Staff members quote an amount based on their personal experience.
For several months, staff have been keeping track of the quote date, material, size, quote amount, and
manufacturing cost for each order in a spreadsheet. As each product is hand-made, the manufacturing
cost may vary between similar orders.
If a quote was not accepted by the customer, then manufacturing cost is not included.
This spreadsheet is available for download on Moodle.
Task 2 – Order information:
Using Excel, process the history of orders spreadsheet and use appropriate charts to visualize:
How some aspect of quoting or manufacturing has changed over time; and
How the quote amount differed for each staff member.
You will need to find a way to use Excel to associate each quote with a staff member.
Describe your approach and your findings in your ePortfolio (approximately 250-400 words), and attach the
Excel file to your page.
Task 3 – Price consistency:
Using Excel, analyse the historical data you have available, and create a spreadsheet that allows a member
of the Dress Design team to enter the dress material and size, and gives a quote amount.
Ensure that you include enough text and formatting to make your spreadsheet usable by a member of the
Dress Design team (or by a University lecturer).
You may base your quote amount either on historical averages, or to ensure that Dress Design makes a
profit.
Validate your quoting approach by applying your formula to historical data.
Justify your approach in your ePortfolio (approximately 150 words), and attach your Excel file to your
ePortfolio.
Process improvement:
The team want to improve their quoting process to reduce time spent waiting for customers to approve
quotes.
They would like to start manufacturing immediately for orders that they might be able to sell in future,
even if the customer does not go ahead with the order.
That is, they would like to change to the processes indicated in the following swimlane diagrams:
Task 4 – Process improvement:
Extend your spreadsheet page from task 3 to automate the above processes, allowing a member of the
team to enter the dress material and size, and in addition to the quote amount indicate whether to start
manufacturing immediately.
It is up to you do determine how to determine which items are popular.
Justify your approach in your ePortfolio (approximately 150 words), and attach your Excel file to your
ePortfolio.
Bonus challenge task (optional!):
Disclaimer: This task is 100% optional, and you can receive full marks without attempting or completing it.
It is intended to be a challenge if you are interested in such things, and the marks available do not reflect
the significant research and effort required to implement it correctly. Tutors will not provide significant
assistance for this challenge task.
Optional task 5:
Reimplement Tasks 1, 3 and 4 using either Python or HTML+JavaScript.
Write a brief overview of how to run your solution, and attach a zip file containing your code to your
ePortfolio page.
There are no partial marks awarded for this bonus task – you must complete all features to attain the
bonus marks.
It is possible to attain full marks for this assignment without completing this challenge task.
Further details:
Assignment support:
This assignment is supported by the first 6 lectures and labs. Work on the assignment should be spread
over several weeks after the relevant lab has been mastered.
Submission:
All files should be submitted to Moodle by the due date and time. Check with your tutor as to whether a
hard copy is required in addition to the electronic submission.
Marking Criteria/Rubric:
Refer to the attached marking guide.
Feedback:
Feedback will be supplied through Moodle. Authoritative marks will be published through fdlMarks.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is the presentation of the expressed thought or work of another person as though it is one’s own
without properly acknowledging that person. You must not allow other students to copy your work and must
take care to safeguard against this happening. More information about the plagiarism policy and procedure
for the university can be found at
http://federation.edu.au/students/learning-and-study/online-help-with/plagiarism.
Marking Guide: Assignment 1
Feature Criteria Maximum ObtainedOperating costsAppropriate projection calculation 2Configurable hours, rates, fixed annual and monthlycosts 2Description of findings 1Uses hand-calculated values (-1)VisualizationVisualization of changes over time 2Visualization of staff member differences 2Description of approach and findings 1Price consistencySpreadsheet interface for pricing 1Validation of approach based on historical data 2Justification of automation 2Unclear instructions (-1)ProcessimprovementAppropriate identification of popular itemcombinations 2Use of formula to indicate whether to startmanufacturing 2Justification of strategy 1MiscellaneouspenaltiesPoor grammar or written English (-2)Indecipherable file naming scheme (-1)Bonus optionalchallenge taskFaithful reimplementation of tasks 1, 3 and 4 usingPython or HTML+JavaScript (+2)Total: 20
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